Clear mirrors and The Geneva Bible, revolutionary innovations of the Elizabethan age, inspired Shakespeares drive towards a new purpose for drama. Shakespeare reversed the conventional mirror metaphor for drama, implying drama cannot reflect the substance of human nature, and developed a method of characterization, through metadrama, self-awareness and soliloquy, to project St. Pauls idea of conscience onto the Elizabethan stage. This revolutionary method of characterization, aesthetic existence beyond performance, has long been sensed but remains frustratingly uncategorized. Shakespeares Mirrors charts the invention of a drama that staged the unstageable: St. Pauls metaphysical conception of human nature glimpsed through a looking glass darkly.
Chapters 4 and 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Introduction: Shakespeares Mirror Metaphors
Prologue: The Mirror of All Martial Men, (Living up to Stereotypes)
Mirrors in the Cultural and Historical Context of Sixteenth Century England
Henry VI, Part One
1. Amorous Looking-Glass: The Self-Infatuation of the Regal Perfomer in the
Early Histories
Richard III and Henry VI, Parts Two and Three
Richard II
2. Dissembling Glass of Mine: Female Self-Evaluation within the Patriarchal
Genre of Courtship Comedy
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Comedy of Errors
The Taming of the Shrew
Loves Labours Lost
A Midsummer Nights Dream
The Merchant of Venice
As You Like It
3. The Mirror of All Christian Kings: Increasing Tension between Classical
Action and Christian Passivity
Henry IV, Part Two
Henry V
Julius Caesar
4. The Mirror up to Nature: Hamlets Metaphysical Redirection of the
Purpose of Playing Hamlet
Metatheatre Subverting the Classical Tradition
Shakespeares Rivalry with Ben Jonson
Hamlets Pauline Education at Wittenberg
The Gravedigger Scene as Christian Exegesis
Venetian Mirrors and the Representation of the Self in the Context of the
Revolutionary Social and Scientific Environment of the Sixteenth Century
5. Glassy Essence: The Fraudulent Hypocrisy of Impious Authority
Troilus and Cressida
Measure for Measure
Timon of Athens
6. Spacious Mirror: The Epic Futility of Political Activity in a World
Without Redemption King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
7. My Glass, Mine Own: Human Play and Identity Reconciled Through
Performative Faith Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Cymbeline
The Winters Tale
The Tempest
The Two Noble Kinsmen
Henry VIII
Epilogue: Through A Glass, Darkly
Bibliography
Edward Evans received his BA in Ancient and Modern History and MPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Bar-Ilan University.
